After trying out a sinking leader while fishing the Salmon River, and watching my friend blast long casts on his switch rod with floating line and a 6 foot sink tip, I'm considering moving in to the world of sink tips.

I bought a Cortland customizable mini-head kit for $9 at Dicks, just because I thought it was pretty cheap. It has 12 ft of sinking line (6 inches per second sink rate) and it comes with two sets of loop connections and heat shrink tubing to secure it. It will basically make two line extensions.

I plan on using sink tips to fish big non-weighted, or not-to-heavy weighted streamers with a short leader of straight mono.(Dungeons, Cougars, Articulated bunnies, leeches, pike flies, etc)

I have two rods that I'd most likely be using them with. The first is a St. Croix Imperial 9" 6 weight with SciAnglers WF floating line (trout), and the 2nd is a 11.5" LSI 8 weight switch rod with Rio switch line(pike, steelies, salmon, etc)

I guess I want to know what the best way would be to chop up this 12 feet of sinking line to make two tips. Should I go with a 4 foot and an 8 foot, 7 and 5, etc? Or am I way off here? I'm afraid the line might be a little too heavy for my six weight.

I say fot the 6wt id cut a 2 or 3ft. head. My honest opinnion I'd just get a full sink line instead. It will give ya better control of your depth and speed of your flys. I love the S.A. streamer express and the orvis depth charge is about the same design.

Dont use the shrink tubes put on the braided connectors and nail knot it 3 times and uv knot sence it. I used the same kit for my floating line on my 10wt. and bass bug line. Its all I could do to get 40 ft cast with a 6ft head a foot long fly.

Posted on: 2011/10/28 15:46

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“If, when you pull a fly out youdon’t hear drums and can’t smellchicken blood in the air, put it backin the box, for if it is evil you seek,then it can only be conjured with thesame.”

My suggestion for a short sink tip to get you fly down is to try poly leaders. They are tapered and cast a whole lot better than a straight sink tip. They come in intermediate, fast, and x-tra fast sinking weights.

Now to "blast long casts" like your friend, I would try a shooting head with running line. You can get floating, intermediate, fast and x-tra fast heads. One or two false casts with a double haul and it will fly!

I'm not sure about how to line your switch rod. Maybe try a 10' Salmon poly leader on the end of the switch line.

Second AFish-once you learn shooting heads you will love them as the fly is fishing,not swishing.A good trick with heads is to over line 3 sizes.( for 6,11 for 8 etc.Then cut back from the rear of the head[not the tippet] a foot at a time until you balance the rod.Only need to do that once,can repeat from then on.This will give you the least length of fly line in the air.The thinner running line will greatly increase your distance.It works.

My preference is a full sink for boat fishing, or the scientific anglers wet tip express for wade fishing (25 ft sink tip + floating running line). I don't recommend trying to wade-fish with a full sinking line.

I've used the shooting heads, and PACO is dead on where it comes to not using the shrink tubing. Those heads don't tend to last very long. If you're going to fish with a sinking line consistently, you'll end up buying actual sinking line instead of the kits.

A full sink line is a dream to cast if you can keep you line speed up. And double haul. It does ge to be a pain when your belt high in a river with 40 ft of line at your feet. I coil it into my stripping hand as i retrieve. Then I drop the coils double haul it and shoot the line.

Posted on: 2011/10/29 23:04

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“If, when you pull a fly out youdon’t hear drums and can’t smellchicken blood in the air, put it backin the box, for if it is evil you seek,then it can only be conjured with thesame.”

It does ge to be a pain when your belt high in a river with 40 ft of line at your feet.

PACO,this is why the Express Wet Tip is so nice - a 25 foot sinking head is long enough that it fishes almost like a sinking line would, other than the coil of line at your ankles. I wish they would extend the sinking head section a bit more since casting more than 50-60 feet of sinking line is usually not necessary for the trout / streamer fishing that I do.

Dub, I have no idea how your new sink tip will perform on a switch rod. I do use small tips like you describe with conventional fly rods that have floating lines. I simply cut the leader off a few inches from the tag end of the fly line; use those few inches to knot to the sink tip; then tie the rest of the leader back on to the other end. It casts awkwardly but does a decent job pulling the end of the fly line down and getting that streamer down. Regarding shooting heads. I love 'em for saltwater. They cast like a cannon but have drawbacks. I set up my 7WT SMB rod with a SH a few years ago and it was lousy and I went back to a regular WF - ditto with my flats 8WT. Shooting heads are inaccurate but do shine in applications where you're punching big flies thru wind mainly for distance.

I fish the sa express 400 grn. with a 26 ft. head. The intermediate runnin line does coil at feet or get swept down stream while your strippin it in. Unless you use a basket. S.a makes a streamer express long line I think its head is 50 ft. I just didnt want the 400gr head being spread out over 50 ft when i can get the weight in a short more compact head.

Posted on: 2011/10/30 11:03

_________________
“If, when you pull a fly out youdon’t hear drums and can’t smellchicken blood in the air, put it backin the box, for if it is evil you seek,then it can only be conjured with thesame.”

I've been building mini sink tip shooting heads for years. I use Cortland LC-13 lead core material. Loop to loop connection on either end of the mini sink tip. Nail knotting the loops with 10lb mono then coating with 5min epoxy. You can make them in different lengths to get your flies to the desired depth. I make them in 1ft and 2ft lengths. They work perfectly for getting my wet flies down to the right depth. The only thing to remember is slow your casting up these things will load the rod and cast like a rocket. This might save you from purchasing another fly line and chopping it up. Hope this helps.

If ya fish the express line more than a couple of times and hook up 1 or 2 fish it'll straiten out. The coiling isnt a problem.

Posted on: 2011/11/2 0:10

Edited by PACOFRANSICO on 2011/11/2 1:05:45Edited by PACOFRANSICO on 2011/11/2 1:07:06

_________________
“If, when you pull a fly out youdon’t hear drums and can’t smellchicken blood in the air, put it backin the box, for if it is evil you seek,then it can only be conjured with thesame.”